last year I would have made one thing. like chicken tikka masala. or baked salmon. this year I make daal and butter chicken both, after planning out how to do all the ingredients and cooking processes in the right order. win!!
year recap!
those pesky 2015 goals:
- get my driver’s license – DONE! in, like, April.
- finish at least one non-fiction book – nope, but instead, I…ended up launching my author platform, and starting work on my personal site!
- keep up on my health goals – exercise: I got my Fitbit working after I moved offices, and realized I do generally get enough steps to be considered something other than sedentary, and I’ve started doing prolonged physical activities like ice skating and walking around town with Jake twice a week; taking supplements: my doctor said that having enough vegetables and fruits in my diet, at my age, is sufficient! and recently we’ve added a ton of blended fruit-vegetable juices and made healthier food choices, so 👍👍👍; eating/drinking enough: mostly, yes! shoutout to Jake and @amekay3, who always reminded me to eat, and my ever-faithful cups with straws for holding lots of water and making it easy to drink.
- publish FR – no, but instead, I…conceived of, wrote, edited, and published RLS instead!
- finish Daugment – DONE! I even got it edited.
- work on Pacemaker – just a bit…it’s on hold by the creator’s choice.
- read 30 books – DONE!
- finish a song – DONE! it was tiny, but I used it in a video project I submitted for work, so I count it.
- oh and bonus goal, I REALLY got better at cooking!
now for some 2016 goals:
- learn a physical skill – martial arts maybe, or juggling, or I don’t know, dancing?
- publish FR and Daugment – I have two mostly-completed manuscripts and the know-how to publish them. no excuses.
- find a house – we would really like to buy a place. good vibes needed.
- finish braindump on our cookbook – I feel like I’m actually qualified to work on it now, having gone through the process myself, and a year is plenty of time to word vomit another 15k words.
- continue doing 2x weekly activities with Jake – ice skating, rock climbing, martial arts, hikes, we can do a lot of it these days.
- continue good health habits – these include maintaining a healthy weight, drinking 60+ ounces of water daily, choosing tea & black coffee as my beverages, doing sun salutations in the morning and at night, and doing 2-3x home workouts in addition to the extended activities above.
- read 30 more books! – I’m even supposed to read some for work.
- write some fiction – maybe novella, maybe novel. no pressure.
- keep a bullet journal – I’m hoping this helps with all my various archiving/recording/logging needs.
stuff it would be nice to get to:
- practice drawing at least weekly
- continue coloring meditations
- submit at least 3 short stories to publications
- help my friend with his art history project
HA! Daugment notes complete! sending it with signed contract and deposit tomorrow!
passed the road test. hit the truck next to me when I was parking at the end…but I passed.
hey, 2015! you’re just around the corner! I’m going to be questing for some goals during you.
my “definitely gonna try to…” list:
- take at least 5-10 hours at driving school and get my driver’s license, once and for all. Look, I bought myself a nice-ass car, and I can’t really drive it. I’d like to fix that for a number of reasons. I’m planning to go pay for the retired coppers at 911 Driving School to kick my ass into gear on this so poor Jake doesn’t have to feel bad for having to yell at me when I almost curb Six.
- write at least one of my non-fiction books. I have three clanging around in my head, half-written, and I’d like to be done with a draft of at least one by the end of the year. all fun, light-hearted things, thankfully, so even if I pick a darker novel to inevitably start later in the year, I can keep things high-spirited.
- keep on pace for my health. My goals are to: exercise 3-4 times per week (including rock climbing, pole dancing, yoga, and Neila Rey workouts), take supplements regularly, continue recording my food intake and eat enough food/drink enough water.
- publish First Run. I’m planning to use Smashwords to publish on Amazon and other platforms, hopefully by the end of spring/beginning of summer. Yes, I’m holding back some excitement in how dry I’m making this paragraph. asdfghkjhl
- finish Daugment. I don’t have a ton left, and a modest 500 words per writing day gets me done in like three weeks.
- turn Pacemaker into a cool app! I’m so excited to be working with a local dev on this app concept. A writing productivity tool? I can barely think of something more meeee
- read another 35 books. This is how I refresh, and I just gotta. I want all of the fluff recommendations, too, because gods know I’m more likely to finish a book if I love the shit out of it.
- finish a song. I bought a piano that still has the songs I wrote when I was 13. It’s time I finished a damn song at 26*.
my “would be cool if could get around to…” list:
- preparing my short stories for publication. My dear friend Jill has promised to help me submit my stories to appropriate publications, since she’s looking for them for her own works anyway, and I really shouldn’t hold back on taking advantage of that offer.
- improving my tablet drawing. Using this thing has been a really fun way to get my brainpan swirled when I feel like doodling, so I’ll keep doing that to get better at, well, doodling.
- figuring out the Thai flavor profile. 2014 was the year of Indian flavors, 2015 is the year of Thai flavors. (I want to keep using coconut milk.)
- participating in a photoshoot. We spotted a good photoshoot idea the other day and I want Jake to try it with me. :3
- finishing our first draft of Return to Elgin.Speaking of Jill…we should probably return (ha) to our novel with our mutual friend Ron.
- planning, designing, and writing “Lazarus” (or whatever we call it). Brandon and I are gonna try to make a game this year, or at least start one. Ready, new set of skills? Go?
as usual, I’m not at all getting in over my head. U_U
*legit had to look up my age just then